Make Mine a Treble

Sevilla will face Getafe in the final of Spain's knockout competition, the King's Cup, next month and are still in with a chance of finishing on top of La Liga.

And Ramos believes the penalty shoot-out win over Espanyol at Hampden Park on Wednesday means his players can attack both objectives without any fear of failure.

"We are at ease," he said after watching his side win the shoot-out 3-1 after Espanyol had scored a late extra-time equalizer to leave the two sides tied at 2-2, despite playing for almost an hour with ten men.

"Our season has already been successful thanks to this victory. We can tackle the league and the King's Cup in high spirits and we will see what happens."

Juande added: "Having won it last season, we knew how tough it is to win this trophy and we have to enjoy it. For the rest, we will see."

Worthy of the trophy

Espanyol ensured it was a very close-run thing and, before they had midfielder Moises Hurtado sent off with just over 20 minutes of regulation time remaining, looked the more likely winners.

But Juande insisted his side had done enough to earn the trophy.

"We were never behind and we had good chances, we just could not kill the match. Even with 10 men, Espanyol were extremely tough and penalties are always a lottery.

"The tension is such anything can happen. But our players played a final last season, they have this experience and that helped us."

Sevilla won the shoot-out thanks to the failure of Luis Garcia, Jonatas and Marc Torrejon to convert their efforts, ensuring history repeated itself Espanyol, who also lost out on penalties in the 1988 final against Bayer Leverkusen.

"Really cruel"

Ernesto Valverde described his side's defeat as "really cruel, especially when you think it has happened to this club before.

"There was a moment before the sending off when when I thought we were going to win. We had so many chances. But after that we had to take off (striker Raul) Tamudo and reorganize. It is very difficult to play against Sevilla, even eleven against eleven.

"We fought with a big heart and we walk away with our heads held high. To lose on penalties again is hard, but if I had to choose a way to lose, this would be the way to lose."

After the 90 minutes had finished with the sides tied at 1-1, Fredi Kanoute's strike appeared to have killed the contest when he side-footed in a cross from Jesus Navas to give his side the lead at the end of the first period of extra time.

But Jonatas conjured up a long-range equalizer to give Espanyol the hope that was ultimately crushed, partly as a result of his failure to score with his penalty.

Man of the match

Sevilla goalkeeper Andres Palop deservedly picked up the man-of-the-match aware for a display which included an assist on his side's opening goal.

After confidently claiming a corner, the keeper sent his teammate racing clear down the left with a huge throw of immaculate accuracy.

The Brazilian's gear changes were too much for the Catalan back four and he was unchallenged as he cut into the box and placed a right-foot finish beyond Gorka Iraizoz and into the far corner.

The brutal simplicity of the goal appeared to underline the perceived gulf in class between the two sides.

Yet within 10 minutes, Albert Riera had put Espanyol back on level terms, with the help of a deflection off the boot of Liverpool target Daniel Alves.

From then, it was Espanyol who displayed the greater appetite for victory and it took a superb stop from Palop to keep out Riera's top-corner-bound effort shortly before Hurtada's dismissal changed the course of the evening.